Does anyone of any research that identifies the acoustic
characteristics needed to arouse people from sleep. I am particularly
looking at making fire alarms more accessible to people with hearing loss, but
need to go back to the initial psychoacoustic work done if it
exists.

I
wanted to alert everyone to this possible research opportunity at our laboratory
at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton,
Ohio.
We are looking for possible post-doc candidates interested in auditory
localization and multitalker speech perception. The program is
administered by the NationalAcademy of
Sciences, and the stipend is relatively generous. There is no guarantee
that funding will be available, but for the right candidate this could be a
great opportunity. The deadline to apply for the fall cycle is November
1st. Note that the position is open only to US citizens and
legal permanent residents (Green Card Holders).

Thanks,

Doug
Brungart

Increasing Information Transfer in
Audio Display Systems

Human audition is an
amazingly complex modality capable of extracting spatial, spectral, and temporal
information from multiple simultaneous sound sources even in adverse listening
environments. However, most real-world audio display systems rely on relatively
simple stimuli that fail to take full advantage of the inherent capabilities of
human listeners. The goal of this research is to find ways to increase the
amount of information transferred to listeners through audio display systems.
The effort involves two broad areas of research. The first area focuses on the
generation of robust and intuitive azimuth, elevation, and distance cues that
maximize the transfer of spatial information in audio displays, especially in
noisy environments that involve more than one virtual sound source. The second
area focuses on improving the segregation of competing sound sources in complex
listening environments, especially those that involve more than one simultaneous
speech signal. A major component of this research is a study of the role that
non-energetic "informational" masking plays in the perception of multiple speech
signals.